<p>There are so many conflicting views because the term “conservative” is used too broadly. For example, with Boston College, I suspect the atmosphere is moderate to conservative on social/cultural issues, but may be moderate to liberal on environmental and foreign policy issues.</p>
<p>As for Texas A&M, the atmosphere is conservative across the board, on virtually every issue one can think of, though it is certainly not extremely conservative on all of them. From all I have seen and all the A&M alums I have known, I would guess that the great majority of students are at least somewhat conservative on social/cultural issues and are even more conservative on economic, environmental, and military/foreign policy issues. A conservative or mainstream Democrat might be able to navigate those waters without too much difficulty, though someone to the left of that, a progressive or a Green Party member, and particularly someone anti-corporatist or anti-military, would have a much harder time.</p>